


Nightmares

by The_Alias (Artemis_Day)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Jane needs help, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020, Nightmares, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fill, Protective Bucky Barnes, Psychological Trauma, so does bucky, they help each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22980865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/pseuds/The_Alias
Summary: Jane can't sleep one night. Lucky for her, she's not alone. In more ways than one.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Jane Foster
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28
Collections: Marvel Fluff Bingo





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

  * For [startraveller776](https://archiveofourown.org/users/startraveller776/gifts).



> For startraveller776.
> 
> Also for Marvel Fluff Bingo (Square N3- hurt/comfort).

It was happening again.

Jane was in a patch of grass, tending to the flowers. All of them had stars in their petals, constellations she knew by heart. Taking stock of each one grew harder as rolling grey clouds covered the sun. Suddenly, the air became dry. The flowers died and turned to dust. Caves and mountains sprung out of the ground as all vegetation withered away. Jane tried to run, but an invisible force took hold of her. It lifted her off the ground. A putrid red liquid poured out of her mouth. Horrible yellow eyes stared at her, tearing her apart from the inside out.  
  
“You can’t escape…” a deep voice said in her ear. “You can never escape.”

She screamed and sat up in bed. It was pitch black and she fumbled for the light switch. When she finally got it on, she was in her bedroom at Avenger’s HQ. Everything was where it should be, from the book on her nightstand to the bulletin board Darcy had personally installed with photos from their trip to Paris.  
  
Jane felt her chest. She could literally feel her heart racing. Taking deep breaths through her nose, she waited for the shivers to stop before getting out of bed. The first few steps were fine. She let go of the wall and made it to the door without trouble. A noise made her jump, but it was only that one tree branch knocking against her living room window.

“Gotta cut that thing down,” she muttered.

The hallways were empty. Because it was literally three in the morning. Jane checked the time on her phone and groaned. No point in going back to sleep now. The lounge was only an elevator ride away and she doubted anyone would mind her channel-surfing until sunrise.

When she entered the lounge the first thing she saw was a human-shaped shadow on the wall. Then a man sitting in one of the many easy chairs with the remote in his hand. He was watching some kind of historical documentary. After a minute, he switched to a telenovela.

“Hello?” Jane called out. It wasn’t right for her to be anxious about one of her new friends, but after a dream like that, who could blame her? When the man turned around, she relaxed. “Oh, hi Bucky. Sorry if I scared you.”

His lip twitched, almost a smile. “I think I’ll get over it. You wanna sit down?”

“Yeah, that’s what I…” She couldn’t find the right words, so she just sat on the couch and tried to lose herself in the chronicles of Ricardo and Manuela.

Ten minutes later, Manuela was angsting over the choice between her true love and his evil twin brother, and Jane was starting to zone out. Her eyes flickered, heavy with sleep. Every time she thought of closing them, Malikith’s gaunt, grinning face would appear in her mind’s eye and she’d be wide awake again.

The third time it happened, Bucky glanced at her. “Are you okay?”

“Fine!” Jane snapped straight up. “Just fine. Tired. You know…”

“Trouble sleeping, huh?”

She sagged. “A little. It’s nothing, just…”

It was very obviously not nothing. She was terrible at hiding it and she knew it. If she was honest, some attention-seeking part of her didn’t want to hide. She wanted to talk and have someone listen. A therapist would be best if she ever made time to go to one. Someone like Bucky would not have been her first choice. It just felt wrong somehow. Like she was comparing her minuscule pain to his own, unimaginable suffering.

Instead of shrugging and going back to the show, Bucky moved onto the couch. “Do you want to talk about it?”  
  
He didn’t have to look so earnest. That just made this harder. “It’s nothing. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Though he deflated a little, he didn’t back off. “It helps to talk, though.”

“So I’ve heard,” Jane said. She tried to swallow, but whatever was lodged in her throat wouldn’t budge. “I just had a bad dream. Something I dealt with a few years ago. It’s-”

“Malekith?”

Jane’s entire thought process crashed. Whatever excuse she’d had a moment ago was long gone. There was nothing she could think to do except stare at him, mouth agape, as transparent as could be without curling up in a ball and crying. “I- I…”

He shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so blunt, but I heard a little about it from Thor. I know you went through some shit with him.”

“Yeah, I did,” Jane croaked. “It was pretty bad. Not that bad, but…”

“Bad enough to give you nightmares.” He ran his hands down his legs. In a better mood, she might’ve noticed earlier how nice his thighs were. “You don’t have to say anything. Just wanted you to know that I’m here if you ever need to.”

The TV was still on, but Jane couldn’t hear it. Their words were mush in her ears. The only thing that was clear any more was Bucky. His pleading eyes like he needed her to open up to him. Like somehow, someway, he thought they could understand each other. 

“It was only a little while,” she said, twiddling her thumbs. “Not like what you… I mean, it was all over in barely a day.”

“But it still affected you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s one day or seventy years. These things stick with you. They don’t really go away. You just learn to deal with it.”

That made sense. Sounded like what a therapist would say. “I just- I remember the way it felt. Like fire in my veins. Like I was going to burn from the inside out.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said. “The machine… it was like that.”

“Like your own body isn’t yours anymore. It belongs to something else now.”

“Something evil.”

Jane nodded, stopping herself from shaking but unable to hold back the tears. “Yeah…”

She leaned forward and hit a hard chest. Bucky was holding her. He moved so fast, she hadn’t seen him. His arms were so strong, both flesh and metal. The way he held her sent a spark through her she didn’t recognize. She’d felt something like it once with Donald and again with Thor. This was different. Deeper somehow. Whatever sort of relationship they had before had just become something else entirely.

Jane didn’t know what that meant, but she wouldn’t dream of fighting it. “Thank you,” she whispered. 

“Anytime,” Bucky said in her ear. “And I mean that.”

Jane gave a wet smile. “I might just take you up on that.”  
  
He pressed his lips ever so briefly to the crown of her hair. “Good.”


End file.
